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In a Fairmount Heights Middle School classroom on Wednesday, an English language arts tutor sat with three seventh graders during third period as they introduced themselves and started an icebreaker.
A tutoring class built into a school schedule isn’t a common occurrence in Newark schools, but the only task at hand in Room 331 was: What’s your favorite song?
A fun question for some. A weighted one for others, worried about first impressions. After all, it was just the third day of the 2024-25 school year for the roughly 300 students at the recently-constructed building, managed by Great Oaks Legacy Charter School, in Newark’s West Ward.
“You can’t think of a song?” asked AmeriCorps tutoring fellow Justice Lateef to Moses, one of the three students in his tutoring cohort that he’ll lead for the rest of the school year.
“All the ones I like are, like,” Moses said before he lowered his voice, “for a certain age, you know?”
“You can still write whatever song you like,” Lateef reassured Moses and his two peers, Altariq and Hillary. “There will be no judgment passed.”
With No. 2 pencils in hand, they quickly scribbled down their answers.
The students at Fairmount Heights, and roughly 1,700 other pre-K-12 students under the Great Oaks Legacy network’s umbrella, were among the first in the city — and across New Jersey — to be back in the classroom last week.
Thousands more students at some of the 14 other charter school networks citywide, which are publicly funded but privately managed, also returned to school during the final weeks of August, including about 6,000 at KIPP Newark Team Academy and another 6,300 at North Star Academy.
Approximately 42,600 students enrolled in Newark Public Schools still have another week before heading back to school on Sept. 3.
Across city charter and traditional public schools, initiatives have been set in motion — from tutoring programs to updated curriculums and specialized staff training — to continue to help students recover academically and return to pre-COVID pandemic proficiency levels on state test scores in reading and math. This year, school officials say they’re hopeful to see students doing better in those areas.
“We’re seeing that extra-catered, small-group instruction could really start to move the needle,” said Daniel Apicella, the dean of fellows who leads Great Oaks Legacy’s tutoring program, which has been in place since the network’s inception 13 years ago. “We’re excited for the future.”
Multilingual learner needs increase
The school community at KIPP Seek Academy, a K-4 school in the South Ward, balanced mixed emotions about summer’s end Thursday as students and educators navigated colorful balloons and red-carpet-ready decorations on the first day of school for the city’s second-largest charter network.
Rasheed Jackson and his daughter Love, 7, were second in line at 7:30 a.m., 15 minutes before the doors opened. As Jackson spoke highly of the school and his pride for his daughter, Love interjected — “I woke up early!” with a smile, adding that her “morning routine” consisted of brushing her teeth and putting on her uniform.
“I’m excited for my first day of second grade,” Love said as she lifted the straps of her sparkly backpack with her thumbs. The front pocket of the backpack had a bright, shiny pink pompom on the front zipper, matching the beads on her hair braids that were different shades of pink.
Some transitions went smoother than others that morning.
As the school day picked up, it was proving to be a tough transition for Samuel, a native Spanish speaker in Stephanee Cook’s kindergarten class. While “Ms. Cook” showed circle time to the students and encouraged them to stand up one at a time to introduce themselves by stating their favorite food, Samuel’s eyes filled with tears. “Ms. Cook” let the class know that Samuel was having a hard time and needed his peers’ support, and then instructed them to say, in unison, “Good morning, Samuel!”
Samuel is one of five new students identified and enrolled at KIPP Seek as a multilingual learner at the school. In the last year, Principal Alexis Conde said, the number of new incoming multilingual learners has increased network-wide. Her school of about 550 students now has 17 multilingual learners, she added.
Across KIPP Newark schools, fall enrollment data points from the state Department of Education show enrollment for multilingual learners has increased by close to 40% from 176 in 2022-23 to 243 in 2023-24 — a similar trend seen on a larger scale in Newark Public Schools.
One of the ongoing professional workshops for K-2 teachers this year, Conde said, has a focus on literacy. “We’re really making sure that we know how to properly teach literacy in the foundation grades so we do what we can to close those gaps that exist,” Conde said. “Because once they get to third grade, that’s harder.”
Third graders at KIPP schools in Newark showed some improvement last year on ELA state tests, with proficiency rates at 25.7% in 2022 and 27.5% in 2023, an increase of 1.8 percentage points.
ELA, math tutors offer social and emotional support
Back in Room 331 at Fairmount Heights, where the classroom of 25 seventh graders had been split into small groups of three to five across six tutors, Moses ultimately couldn’t remember the name of his favorite song. But, he conceded, it was one from Travis Scott, an American rapper and songwriter who’s produced multiple number-one hits on top music charts.
“I know you’re probably wondering, ‘Why are we, in ELA, talking about songs?’” Lateef, the first-year tutor, pointed out as he and the group scooted their seats even closer together around two desks. “But it’s going to all relate because a lot of these songs — even instrumental music — can translate into stories and themes.”
Lateef, a Newark native and recent Rowan University graduate, is one of 94 AmeriCorps tutoring fellows stationed across Great Oaks Legacy’s three middle schools citywide. The number of tutors deployed across those schools from AmeriCorps — a government agency that pays a stipend for interested participants to get trained and tutor in high-needs districts — is ticking back up after dipping to 68 fellows last school year. During the 2018-19 school year, there were 108 tutors across network middle schools.
The start of the school year, Apicella said, is key for tutors, who specialize either in math or ELA, to begin to develop a strong foundation with the students. Tutors not only provide academic help but also mentorship to support social and emotional learning, he added.
“Those first couple weeks of school are so crucial because there can be no meaningful learning unless there is that meaningful relationship,” he said.
For Lateef, a Newark Public Schools alum, the tutoring position is personal.
“My big ‘why’ that brought me back here was to give back to the community that has given so much to me, despite its flaws,” he said. “I just want to try to be that person I wish I had when I was at that age.”
Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.
